Group Therapy for Women and Men

Group therapy is a powerful tool for emotional growth, especially as an adjunct to individual or couples therapy.

Therapy groups for women and men enable members to reach a level of personal and emotional growth that they are capable of achieving. Groups provide an invaluable therapeutic setting for gaining insight, support, emotional regulation, connection and differentiation—all of which are needed to build and sustain a solid, authentic relationship to oneself.

Group members are drawn from Elizabeth Perwin’s personal practice of individual and marriage counseling clients. Because of an established relationship with each client prior to their inclusion in the group, members feel known and appropriately challenged in this new context. It is an opportunity for them to thrive.

Women’s Therapy Group

Many of the women who are drawn to and benefit from the group therapy experience are overachievers who project extreme competency and perfection, but have difficulty with attachment and vulnerability.

Group allows women to experiment with closeness and to tolerate the anxiety of receiving care. It provides a context for women to build peer relationships, receive feedback, and establish trust. All of this gives them the strength to tolerate vulnerability. It is often the only way a group member can get out of her head and into her feelings.

Men’s Therapy Group

Group therapy encourages men to connect openly with other men who want to live more satisfying and authentic lives. Members report that group is the only place where they can be honest and forthcoming about their feelings. In group, they receive direct, compassionate feedback from their peers.

Men who grow up in dysfunctional families are not able to experience themselves accurately, and come to believe these distortions. The trusting relationships that develop in Group provide an experience where members come to understand their personality adaptations and to risk reclaiming a truer version of themselves.

How Group Therapy Works

In a group setting, members experience a safe, structured environment to practice social skills, including honest, direct communication, building peer relationships, receiving feedback and establishing trust. Group members learn to increase their tolerance for anxiety, to explore and experiment with social behavior, to learn how others experience them, and to try alternative ways of relating to others.

The ongoing support provided by the group therapy process is extremely effective over time at improving clients’ relationships with peers and colleagues at work. When coordinated with couples counseling, group therapy helps partners achieve greater honesty in their intimate relationships.

Elizabeth Perwin see clients from throughout the Washington DC metropolitan area and Silver Spring, Maryland. Please contact Elizabeth if you would like find out more about her therapy groups for women or men.